All Elite Wrestling is back on pay-per-view this Sunday, April 21st, live from the Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis, MO with DYNASTY 2024! This place was so electric last time AEW was in town that they earned their way to hosting a PPV extravaganza, and if you can't be there live, then there are several ways to experience it from the comfort of your home! We've got EIGHT championship matches, including a Ladder Match for the vacant World Tag Titles, a huge dream match between two men regarded as the best in the world, and a trios grudge match sure to be an absolute war!
The pay-per-view proper gets underway at 8pm ET/7pm CT, with the ZERO HOUR kicking things off on the official AEW YouTube Channel, beginning at 7pm ET/6pm CT, and absolutely FREE! The stakes are high in St. Louis this Sunday night, and it's going be quite intriguing to see who rolls into Jacksonville next Wednesday night with their head, and their championship, still held high!
AEW World Championship Match...
Samoa Joe(c) vs. Swerve Strickland
Swerve Strickland has been in pursuit of the AEW World Championship since the moment he crawled out of a casket after ALL IN: LONDON. There were road blocks and speed bumps and violent detours, most notably that FULL GEAR 2023 Texas Death Match with Hangman Page, but ultimately Swerve got there at REVOLUTION 2023, only he did so with Hangman also in tow. See their #1 Contender's match ended in a time limit draw, and while Page thought that blocked Swerve from getting his coveted championship opportunity, it only meant Samoa Joe had to defend against both individuals in a Three Way bout.
That night in Greensboro, as Hangman Page struggled in Joe's signature Choke, it seemed like Swerve was in position to break up the submission, and save his championship aspirations. Yet in a “cut off your nose to spite your face” moment, Hangman gave up the ghost rather than allow Swerve the chance to break up the submission and possibly go on to win that AEW World Championship match. That's how much Hangman hates Swerve Strickland, he was willing to forfeit his opportunity to become a 2-Time AEW World Champion just to prevent Swerve from winning that night.
Whether or not that was a good decision is something only Hangman can decide, but clearly Adam Page only postponed Swerve's opportunity, he did not stop it from ever happening again. With the record each man had built, the victories that each had garnered, Swerve and Konosuke Takeshita collided with a World Championship match at stake, and after twenty minutes of battle, the boss of The Mogul Embassy had earned his one-on-one title match with Samoa Joe.
Since then the hostilities between champion and challenger have boiled over repeatedly; Joe left Swerve a battered and bloody mess during their contract signing, but Swerve shot a message back to Joe by signing the contract in his own blood. Joe tried to take advantage of Dustin Rhodes after having already beaten him in an Eliminator Match, and Swerve was on the spot to kick the World Champion's head into and send him walking off to the back with his title belt still in Swerve's hands.
Now that everything that could be said between Samoa Joe and Swerve Strickland has been spoken, now that they've each taken their shots on one another verbally and physically, the time to fight is upon them. Will All Elite Wrestling truly become Swerve's House after this Sunday night in St. Louis, or will Strickland be smashed back down to the bottom of the contender's list right alongside Hangman Page, HOOK, Wardlow, and Dustin Rhodes, or beaten into silence like the man Joe initially defeated at WORLDS END last year, Maxwell Jacob Friedman?
Who is the Best In The World??
“The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson vs. “The Aerial Assassin” Will Ospreay
“The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson and “The Aerial Assassin” Will Ospreay are two men that have been declared G.O.A.Ts, been dubbed “the best wrestler in the world”, and even though their careers are still quite active, are both looked on reverentially by many of their peers. They've achieved a status as professional wrestlers that is quite rarified, though the two men are at quite opposite ends of their careers. Danielson, fighting since 1999, has been through hell and back physically and emotionally, had his career taken away from him on several occasions, and yet here he stands in 2024 possibly better than he has ever been and taking on the kind of fights he's dreamed about as his career has evolved. Bryan told the world that this was the last year in which he'd be wrestling full-time, and for him that has meant taking on Blue Panther in Arena Mexico for CMLL, and going blow-for-blow with Katsuyori Shibata in AEW. It has meant fighting Zack Sabre Jr. in Osaka for New Japan, and battling Kazuchika Okada at WRESTLE KINGDOM 18 inside the Tokyo Dome. It's been Jun Akiyama, Hechicero, and Yuji Nagata, it's also been Eddie Kingston and Shane Taylor, and this Sunday night it will finally be Will Ospreay.
For Ospreay the journey to this point has taken twelve years, and it's one that took him from Essex, Kent, and London to Germany to Reseda, CA to the Tokyo Dome and Korakuen Hall as well as to Wembley Stadium, the United Center, and Scotiabank Arena. It saw him win the Best of Super Junior Tournament twice, the New Japan Cup once, twice reign as IWGP United States Champion, three times as IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, and defeat Kota Ibushi to claim the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. Will Ospreay's resume is impressive to say the least, and it is rather wild to think of all that he's accomplished in his dozen years as a professional wrestler. He's competed for RevPro, PROGRESS, ROH, NJPW, PWG, OTT, wXw, just to name a handful of promotions, and held twenty different championship including those aforementioned NPW crowns.
It's also rather wild to think that the same day Will Ospreay made his professional wrestling debut, Bryan Danielson was losing a World Championship in Miami, FL in front of the eyes of the wrestling world. It's wild to think that before Ospreay ever set foot in front of fans, “The American Dragon” had already held the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Titles with Curry Man, he'd been the ROH World Champion, unified the ROH Pure Title with it, held Pro Wrestling NOAH's GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title, the PWG Championship, the wXw Heavyweight Title, and that's saying nothing of the titles Bryan won in the two and a half years between leaving the independent circuit and Ospreay's 2012 introduction to the wrestling world, nor the titles Danielson has won in the 12+ years since “The Aerial Assassin” began his career. Though he wasn't the first to walk that road, Bryan helped blaze the trail that Will Ospreay has followed during his career, and it seems apropos that in this final year of Danielson's full-time status, they finally step into the ring with one another for a generational battle of the best.
As soon as the very notion of this match became reality, it set the AEW fanbase ablaze, but if there's a wrinkle in this dream match scenario, something that has actively worked to dampen the electricity around it, that something would be The Don Callis Family. It's as if Don Callis has decided it it absolutely necessary to strike Bryan Danielson down in order for Will Ospreay to win this bout, it was evident on DYNAMITE last week when Konosuke Takeshita dropped Bryan on his head with a brainbuster on the ramp, and it seems evident in his message to Hobbs and Fletcher prior to that that they need only concern themselves with hurting Bryan during their tag match, not so much with winning. It's as if Callis doesn't have enough faith in Ospreay to defeat Danielson unless the deck is stacked against him, or perhaps it's that Don can't take any credit for the victory if it doesn't involve The Family in some capacity. Is that what Ospreay wants? Is that what he believes as well? Even if it isn't, Ospreay hasn't exactly denounced the actions of his “family” members?
So coming out of that wild Bunkhouse Brawl just twenty-four hours ago, and hearing Bryan's words after The BCC victory, this Sunday night on pay-per-view is going to be intense! We will see (to paraphrase Ospreay himself) the greatest of all-time versus the greatest of the 21st century and no matter who wins, every single fan of professional wrestling will be able to call themselves a winner for getti ng to experience this kind of generational clash! It's Ospreay versus Danielson and it could only happen here in All Elite Wrestling!
AEW Women's World Championship Match
Toni Storm(c) vs. Thunder Rosa
On March 16, 2022 Thunder Rosa stepped inside a Steel Cage with Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D to challenge for the AEW Women's World Championship. It was a rematch of their REVOLUTION 2022 clash where, thanks to some copious interference and distractions, Baker managed to retain the title but only for ten more days. Inside that cage Rosa took her revenge on Baker, finally secured that AEW championship around her waist, and got to celebrate it in front of friends and family in San Antonio. Ideally it would've been the beginning of a long and successful championship reign, full of defenses against the best challengers from both within AEW as well as from the outside wrestling world, and that was the case for several months. Thunder took on the challenges of Nyla Rosa, Serena Deeb, Marina Shafir, Toni Storm, Miyu Yamashita, as well as Jamie Hayter, and turned them all away, but somewhere along the line her body betrayed her and on the 8/24/22 edition of DYNAMITE she made the following announcement:
Toni Storm would go on to win the vacant Women's World Championship at ALL OUT 2022, and in the nineteen months since that victory fans have watched the title move from Storm to Jamie Hayter then back to Toni Storm for a second time only for Toni to lose it to Hikaru Shida. Shida's second reign with the title was ended by Saraya just 25 days after it began but Shida would take it back for a third time 44 days later, only for “Timeless” Toni Storm to end that historic reign after 39 days and begin a third one of her own. All the while Thunder Rosa had to sit back, sometimes from home but eventually from COLLISION's Spanish commentary table, and watch the action unfold, unable to do anything to regain what she'd lost save continue to fight to get back into the ring. It was a long, strenuous rehabilitation for “La Mera Mera”, the prospect of returning to active competition at times seeming like an impossibility, but on December 23rd of last year, Thunder Rosa stepped back between the ropes for the very first time in sixteen months and scored the victory for herself and Abadon!
Since that night in San Antonio, Thunder Rosa has gone undefeated in AEW competition, scoring nine consecutive wins, six of them in singles competition including one over Toni Storm's understudy Mariah May, and one of the others being a tag team match in which Rosa pinned Storm for the victory. That pinfall was the first “Timeless” Toni Storm had experienced since GRAND SLAM 2023 six months prior, and it helped catapult “La Mera Mera” into a prime position to be the #1 Contender to Storm's championship. The aforementioned victory over Mariah May sealed the deal, and this Sunday night, 606 days since Rosa initially made her emotional announcement, Thunder will finally have an opportunity to regain the championship she never lost!
Perhaps getting back to this position was the hardest part, or perhaps it was just part of the hardships, because having to face this version of Toni Storm to regain that title could be the hardest part of the deal. This is not the same woman Thunder Rosa beat at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2022, not as a competitor and certainly not as a woman, this “Timeless” persona is as nasty and mean-spirited as it gets with no qualms about using Luther and Mariah May as pawns to insure the championship stays in her camp. The lipstick, the shoe, the whole dog and pony show that is “Timeless” is evident of Toni's willingness to do absolutely anything, or say absolutely anything for that matter, in order go maintain an edge over her challengers.
She only stands here today as reigning Women's World Champion because of the distractions provided at REVOLUTION 2024 by her understudy and her butler; if not for them it would be Deonna Purrazzo facing Thunder Rosa rather than Toni Storm. Instead it is Storm doing her best to humiliate and embarrass “La Mera Mera” before their title fight, throwing champagne in Rosa's face and smearing her signature paint, but instead of humiliating the former champion, Toni Storm stoked the flames...
If Toni Storm's plan was embarrass Thunder Rosa with that champagne toast, it clearly backfired because the former champion is more fired up and intense than she has ever been, ready to come into St. Louis with guns blazing, and get back that AEW Women's World Championship! Rosa certainly did her bit to embarrass Toni Storm earlier this week, but it seems like “Timeless” is just as fired up as her challenger:
Will the long journey back, and all the pain and suffering it took to get there, pay off for Thunder Rosa or will “Timeless” Toni Storm continue to cast her black and white shadow over the Women's Division?
AEW World Tag Team Championship Tournament Final Ladder Match...
The Young Bucks (Matthew Jackson & Nicholas Jackson) vs. FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood)
November 7, 2020, FULL GEAR PPV, FTR comes into the event as the defending AEW World Tag Team Champions but leaves empty-handed as The Young Bucks bring their reign to an end after just sixty-three days.
April 6, 2022, DYNAMITE 131, FTR comes into this event as the defending ROH World Tag Team Champions and the defending AAA World Tag Champions, and after twenty minutes of hard-fought competition, Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler leave with both of those championships still in their possession.
August 27, 2023, ALL IN: LONDON, FTR once again enter the event as the defending AEW World Tag Team Champions, titles they'd held since beating The Gunns on 4/5/23, and after nearly twenty-two minutes of heated action, FTR would emerge from the fray still the AEW World Tag Team Champions. In the aftermath of the bout, FTR extended their hands to Matt and Nick Jackson, despite everything they'd done to each other through their three matches, everything that had been said since FTR came to AEW, even the antagonistic behavior of The Elite via BTE long before Cash and Dax there as an AEW, despite all that FTR extended a handshake to The Young Bucks. It should've have been the culmination of an epic trilogy of matches, a moment where respect was shown for the battles they'd been through with one another over the past three years, but instead the brothers Jackson walked away from the handshake.
They had their excuses, they made up their own reasons as to why they did what they did, and in the eight months since have even come to blame others for their behavior that night in England, but ultimately the responsibility for the disrespect shown to Cash and Dax is all on them. Just as their actions towards FTR when they, along with Kazuchika Okada, assaulted Dax and Cash on the April 10th DYNAMITE were entirely actions of their own choosing. No one held them to the fire or coerced them into delivering a double EVP Trigger to the battered bodies of FTR, no one forced them to cut the video package on Wednesday that AEW's production team put hard work into creating, and no one forced them to try and maim Daniel Garcia after the match.
Then there was Saturday's Trios bout on COLLISON where Matthew Jackson got pinned by PAC, Okada ended up trapped in a Brutalizer, and Daniel Garcia came to the aid of FTR when The Elite dipped into their usual bag of tricks after the match. Suffice to say Saturday night was not the best ending for The Young Bucks, not as they're heading towards this World Tag Team Championship Ladder Match, so for their sake The EVPs better be able to rebound quickly.
Given all the history between these four men, it's easy to lose sight of the most important part of this entire situation on Sunday night. Ultimately it isn't about the disrespect shown at Wembley, the actions taken by the EVPs eleven days ago, or what went down this week heading into St. Louis; this is about the vacant AEW World Tag Team Championship and the title belts that will be hung high over head waiting for one team to ascend a ladder and pull them down into their arms. The team that accomplishes that feat, the duo that survives the chaos with enough strength to climb the rungs and grab the belts, they will go down in history as the first three-time World Tag Champions in All Elite Wrestling history. The Young Bucks were stifled in that endeavor by FTR at ALL IN: LONDON, as well as by Darby Allin and Sting at REVOLUTION 2024, while FTR were shut down at FULL GEAR 2023 in that Four Team Ladder Match.
But now, with the championship vacant following Sting's retirement, and these two teams having made it to the Finals of the AEW World Tag Team Championship Tournament, one of these two teams will leave St. Louis as three-time champions, the other will leave heartbroken, lost, and wondering what the next step in their careers will be. Just as Danielson/Ospreay is a battle of the best in one aspect of the game, this is unquestionably a battle of the two best tag teams doing it today, but which one will quite literally climb to the top spot?
AEW International Championship Match...
Roderick Strong(c) vs. Kyle O'Reilly
Roderick Strong and Kyle O'Reilly have been enmeshed in each others lives for more than a dozen years, dating back to the 10/29/11 edition of ROH WRESTLING where they battled in their first one-on-one match. At that point Roderick was already a former ROH World Champion and World Tag Team Champion, and on his way to becoming the 2nd Triple Crown Champion in ROH history with a World Television Championship win in March 2012. Kyle, on the other hand, was still fairly new to the ROH scene though he'd made his debut September 2009. After sporadic appearances in the fourth quarter of 2009 and early 2010, it wasn't until FADE TO BLACK on 9/10/10 that Kyle became a fixture in Ring of Honor, and his Future Shock partnership with Adam Cole cemented his spot on the roster.
Almost a year to the day from their first ROH singles match, Roddy and Kyle would clash one-on-one again at KILLER INSTINCT, but it wouldn't be until the 2/23/13 edition of ROH WRESTLING TV that they teamed up for the first time. It was more an alliance of convenience, common enemies and what not, as the two men would never again stand on the same side of a ROH ring for the duration of their mutual tenures. Before their time in ROH ended, Kyle and Roddy would clash one more time in singles competition, this time during Night 3 of the WINTER WARRIORS 2015 tour, and for the third straight time in Ring of Honor, Roderick Strong defeated Kyle O'Reilly.
Wildly enough, the animosity between the two individuals actually bled into Pro Wrestling Guerrilla as well where they met twice in 2014, both in PWG Championship matches, the first at UNTITLED II where Kyle got his only singles victory over Roderick while the second took place in a violent Guerrilla Warfare bout that saw Strong take the PWG Title from O'Reilly. The end result of their five singles matches saw just one victory for Kyle O'Reilly, but the bond formed from the violent acts they committed upon each other in those bouts, not to mention their numerous other matches, proved to be quite a strong connection.
Though the two men left the independent scene, they eventually found each other again, first through violence, then through partnership, and it was also with Adam Cole standing at their side. Years of battle bonded the two of these men together, forged a friendship that seemed quite unbreakable, and yet here we are, on the verge of the two men going to battle over the AEW International Championship, and so soon after Kyle O'Reilly made his long-awaited return to All Elite Wrestling.
That's what makes the fact this match is even taking place quite sad; it was only weeks ago that Roderick Strong was celebrating the return of Kyle O'Reilly, that he was overjoyed to see his friend return to competition after nearly two years away from the ring. Whether or not Kyle could ever return to the sport he loves was uncertain, but there he was on March 16th, having just gone through a hard-hitting fight with “Bounty Hunter” Bryan Keith, standing in victory with Roderick hugging him just before Matt Taven and Mike Bennett hoisted him upon their shoulders.
It felt genuine, that outpouring of emotion, but looking back on it a month later, there had to have been something amiss with Roderick already, and it had to be the fact that Kyle chose to ride separate from The Undisputed Kingdom. Just listen to the words from Roderick at the top of this section, he didn't think Kyle deserved to choose for himself how he'd continue his AEW career, and the fact that Kyle chose to offer Rocky Romero words of encouragement before he fought Roderick was clearly the last straw!
So it will be this Sunday night these two men will meet as foes for the first time since 2018 and clash one-on-one for the first time since 2015! As disappointing as it is to watch this friendship go sour so quickly and over such insecurities, imagine how it must feel to be Kyle O'Reilly coming back to the fight you'd thought you'd lost forever, thinking you've got the support of your friends, but only to learn that support was quite conditional. Kyle threw more fuel on the fire Saturday night when he, along with Matt Menard and Rocky Romero, defeated The Undisputed Kingdom in Trios competition by forcing Mike Bennett to tap out to an O'Reilly armbar. Following the match, Kyle shared these words with the AEW cameras:
It looks like this Sunday night at DYNASTY 2024, in front of Kyle O'Reilly's adopted hometown, it will be time for Roderick Strong to feel his wrath...
AEW Continental Championship Match...
Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. PAC
“The Bastard” PAC returned to All Elite Wrestling on the March 9th edition of COLLISION, arriving on the scene in part to assist Eddie Kingston and Penta El Zero Miedo after they'd been assaulted by Kazuchika Okada and The Young Bucks but also, it turned out, to get right in the face of “The Rainmaker”. The two exchanged blows while the crowd chanted “Holy S***!”, but before it could escalate into a full-blown fight, the EVPs pulled Okada to safety.
That wasn't the end of it, not for “The Bastard” at least, and once Okada defeated Eddie Kingston to claim the AEW Continental Championship, it only amplified PAC's desire for a one-on-one fight with the newly crowned champion. PAC issued the warning that he'd find trouble as soon as he returned to the AEW stage, and that is just what he's done with Kazuchika Okada. He's been a relentless cockroach, unkillable and unbreakable, yet quite grateful for having a chair cracked across his skull by Okada and being beaten down by The Elite. A reminder he called it, a reminder to show the world just what kind of bastard he truly is, and this past Wednesday night on DYNAMITE let The Elite see it full force. When he and Okada stood in the ring alone, they absolutely laid into one another ahead of this clash, and in those moments it certainly seemed like Okada was going to end up on the wrong end of a Black Arrow. It was only the fortunate timing of Nicholas Jackson that saved Okada from falling to the original AEW International (All-Atlantic) Champion, and that save by Nicholas also began the downward spiral for PAC's trio. With PAC down, Penta fell shortly thereafter, leaving Daniel Garcia alone to eat a double superkick from The Young Bucks followed by a Rainmaker Lariat from the International Champion.
The last sight we saw of these men on DYNAMITE was “The Bastard” holding a hammer in his hand, having run off The Elite from trying to injure Garcia post-match, looking as maniacal as we'd ever seen him, and that should scare even someone as experienced in big match situations as Kazuchika Okada. This may not be Okada's first time defending a championship, but it is his first time defending the Continental Title, and his first pay-per-view bout as an official member of the AEW locker room. This is a high pressure situation even for someone who fought over the IWGP World Championship eleven times at WRESTLE KINGDOM, and given that Okada will have a veritable psychopath standing across the ring from him gunning for that Continental Championship, he should be very, very concerned for what the future holds!
“The Bastard” is certainly heading into this evening with an edge, not only did he score the winning pinfall on Saturday night over Matthew Jackson, when everything turned to chaos after the match, it was Okada who ended up trapped in PAC's Brutalizer submission, a hold he might still be locked in at this moment if The Young Bucks hadn't pulled him to safety! So the defending Continental Champion now has to head into St. Louis knowing the pain that could be in store for him if PAC gets that hold secured once again, and know that his reign as champion could come to an abrupt, violent end!
AEW TBS Championship Match
Julia Hart(c) vs. Willow Nightingale
Wednesday night on DYNAMITE it was supposed to be a mixed tag pitting TNT Champion Adam Copeland and Willow Nightingale against The House of Black's Brody King and TBS Champion Julia Hart, and while that is how the match ended, it's certainly not how it began. Prior to the match Willow Nightingale was attacked, presumably by The House of Black, leaving Copeland in a situation where he was forced to go it alone for the majority of the match. What that meant in real time was Copeland being attacked from behind by Brody King, fighting most of the match from underneath, but managing to find moments of respite to keep himself in the battle.
Eventually Willow got herself out to the ring, even taking the fight to Brody King, but ultimately it was Julia Hart who ended the fight using Brody's chain necklace to crack her DYNASTY 2024 challenger from behind. Suffice to say that Hart heads into Sunday night with a distinct advantage over Willow Nightingale, not only because of the damage done to Willow by the backstage assault or the usage of the chain to end the match, but also because the TBS Champion took no damage Wednesday night. Given that the match was 80% Brody King beating on Adam Copeland, Hart had to engage in very little physical activity, allowing her to conserve her energies for the title fight in St. Louis. It was a very smart, very dastardly tactic on behalf of The House of Black, a testament to just how coldly calculating Julia Hart has become since giving herself over to the teachings of The House.
Come Sunday night, will Willow Nightingale be in any condition to actually challenge for the TBS Championship? There's no way she will miss out on the opportunity, especially knowing that Mercedes Moné awaits the winner at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 on May 26th, but what shape will Nightingale actually be in as the challenger?
Trios Grudge Match...
TNT Champion Adam Copeland, NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion Eddie Kingston, & ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe vs. House Of Black (Brody King, Buddy Matthews & Malakai Black)
Weeks ago, following TNT Champion Adam Copeland defeating Christian Cage on the most recent DYNAMITE hailing from Toronto, Malakai Black made it very clear that he had an interest in Adam Copeland and his newly won title. Thankfully Copeland wasn't alone in facing Malakai and his House, that trio had made an enemy out of Mark Briscoe to the point that he tried to melt Buddy Matthews face with pyro, while Eddie Kingston has had issues with The House for the last several years.
It didn't take long for this match to come together, both Eddie and Mark were quick to have Copeland's back for the fight, and even though Adam was on the wrong end of a brutal beating from Brody King this past Wednesday, and both Mark and Eddie are still feeling it from their ROH World Championship fight at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2024, they are still game for the fight at DYNASTY 2024.
Much like how Julia Hart is heading into her TBS Championship fight, the three men honoring The House of Black will also be entering into this Trios battle fresh, as whole as a professional wrestler can get given the nature of the profession, and that could make all the difference in the world come Sunday in St. Louis. Copeland, Kingston, and Briscoe may have a lot to fight for at DYNASTY 2024, but their body may not be as willing as the spirit after everything they've been through the last several weeks.
That doesn't mean they won't fight with every ounce of spirit left in their bodies, that doesn't mean The House of Black won't know they're in a fight, it just means that The House is playing with a stacked deck to try and insure that they...always...win.
FTW CHAMPIONSHIP...
HOOK(c) vs. Chris Jericho
Chris Jericho didn't even bother to try to hide his ego there did he? From the moment he first extended this offer of mentorship to HOOK, the FTW Champion was wary of “Lionheart” but initially it seemed as if the two could actually work well together. Their first outing as a team went smoothly as LionHOOK defeated The Gates of Agony at DYNAMITE: BIG BUSINESS, but Jericho wanted to really see what HOOK had to offer, which led to them facing off in a singles bout. “The Cold-Hearted Handsome Devil” dominated Jericho in that outing, beating him in just under eleven minutes, and showing the original AEW World Champion first-hand what he brought to the table.
That led LionHOOK into a more established partnership, taking on Shane Taylor Promotions in tag team action, but even though the pair won that fight, the return of Anthony Ogogo to the AEW landscape turned it into a pyrrhic victory for Jericho and HOOK. Logically they wanted some revenge for the assault, but rather than take a backseat to Jericho and wait for him to make a move, HOOK took it upon himself to ask Kastuyori Shibata to be their third. It was a tremendous choice to add the former ROH Pure Champion as their partner against STP, but once the match got rolling, it was clear that Jericho had issues with HOOK looking to Shibata. Chris literally pulled HOOK away from Shibata as the man tried to make a tag, a choice that directly led to their trio taking the loss to STP, and the reason for the ill will that bled into Wednesday night.
After that match, cameras caught up with Jericho pleading with HOOK's father Taz to convince his son to meet with Chris, and thus came the situation that unfolded in the video embedded above. Every word out of Jericho's mouth was about him, bolstering himself up by burying everything else in HOOK's life, including the man who not only sired him but who was also standing right there listening to it all unfold. No doubt if this had been ten years ago, Taz would've choked the life out of Jericho himself, but instead he let it all slide off his back, even when Jericho shoved him to the ground. While Taz may have been able to keep his composure in that moment, his son was more reactive, though far calmer than Taz would've been at his age. HOOK could've attacked Jericho, he could've dropped “Lionheart” on his head and cinched in a Redrum, but instead he told Chris he could have a fight any time, any where, and told the man to leave his ring.
Minutes later the match was made official; this Sunday as part of DYNASTY 2024, “Lionheart” Chris Jericho will go one-on-one with HOOK, but unlike their first match, the FTW Championship will be on the line this time, and that means FTW Rules! HOOK has been a superb champion, reigning for a total of 595 days between his two runs, with just 39 days interrupting them, and marking twelve successful defenses in total. He's beaten Brian Cage, Shane Taylor, Wheeler Yuta, and Ricky Starks, to name a few, and now he looks to add the biggest name yet to his list in Chris Jericho. But with FTW Rules in effect, will Jericho stay the way of “Lionheart” or will we see some of “The Ocho” or “Le Champion” creep their way to the surface? After being beaten by HOOK last time, after seeing the man he assumed would let him take the wheel push him to the passenger seat, and after the humiliation of Wednesday night, Chris Jericho's pride and massive ego have to be stinging, so what will he do in order to salve that wound?
WINNER TAKES ALL...
AEW World Trios Champions The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens, Daddy Ass, & Max Caster) vs. ROH World Six-Man Champions The Bang Bang Gang (Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn, & Jay White)
The challenge was finally made on Wednesday night after weeks and weeks of waiting for the other shoe to drop. It seemed entirely too good to be true when The Bang Bang Gang and The Acclaimed managed to put their differences aside to create a wrestling super group, convinced by “Switchblade” Jay White to unite after all had been victimized by The Undisputed Kingdom in 2023. Yet once they came together, once the six men agreed to try to make it work, the newly christened Bang Bang Scissor Gang didn't so much as glance at The UK. In fact they spent most of their time together goofing off, talking about super the group was, and not a great deal in the way of action. They competed in a couple twelve man tags, mixed up their standard trios a bit, but overall 2024 was quite light on the heavy-hitting from either team. It seemed Max Caster got a case of the yips when it came to his rhymes, that the six men didn't necessarily see eye-to-eye on everything about business, but it all came apart at the seams shortly after REVOLUTION 2024.
After scoring a victory over Darby Allin, “Switchblade” Jay White attempted to permanently injure the multi-time champion, and it was only the involvement of Billy Gunn, Max Caster, and Anthony Bowens that stopped that from happening. Instead it was Daddy Ass who got drilled with a chair from Jay White, and The Acclaimed who got cracked across the skull with a ROH World Six-Man Title belt. Suffice to say that the Bang Bang Scissor Gang was no more, and one couldn't help but wonder if luring The Acclaimed and Daddy Ass into some false sense of security wasn't the plan all along.
After a confrontation between the two teams at SUPERCARD OF HONOR 2024 following The Bang Bang Gang's impromptu ROH World Six-Man Championship defense, it certainly seemed the two trios were on the a collision course, but it only became official this past Wednesday! And following The Gunns tag team victory over The Acclaimed on Saturday night, the animosity between these six men has reached a fever pitch! Who will walk out of DYNASTY 2024 with all the gold and who will leave the Gateway City empty-handed?
-Trent Beretta vs. Matt Sydal
-Shane Taylor Promotions (Lee Moriarty & Shane Taylor) vs. Katsuyori Shibata & Orange Cassidy
All Elite Wrestling returns to pay-per-view with DYNASTY 2024 this Sunday night and coming to fans worldwide live from St. Louis, MO and the Chaifetz Arena! Last time AEW rolled through St. Louis the crowd was so electric that we just had to bring a PPV their way, but if you can't be in the house on Sunday, at least you can watch it from your own home! The AEW World Championship is on the line between Samoa Joe and Swerve Strickland, a Ladder Match between The Young Bucks and FTR will determine the new World Tag Champions, “The American Dragon” and “The Aerial Assassin” will fight to determine which is truly the best wrestler in the world, plus TNT Champ Adam Copeland heads to war against The House of Black with Eddie Kingston and Mark Briscoe at his side! In addition, Thunder Rosa comes for the AEW Women's World Championship while Willow Nightingale pursues the TBS Title, and “The Bastard” PAC looks to take down AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada in their first one-on-one contest ever!
DYNASTY 2024 begins at at 8pm ET/7pm CT on pay-per-view, but the ZERO HOUR will be available for free beginning at 7pm ET/6pm CT on the official AEW YouTube Channel! Fans can also get prepared for Sunday night by checking out all the highlights from the last several weeks of AEW programming right on that YouTube Channel, and then join us in in Jacksonville next Wednesday to see what the face of All Elite Wrestling looks like in the aftermath of DYNASTY!